Ice maker, refrigerator having the same, and method for supplying ice thereof

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are an ice maker, a refrigerator having the ice maker, and a method for supplying ice of the refrigerator. An ice making container long in a vertical direction is installed on a side wall surface of a refrigerator door, makes ice, and pushes up the ice by screws to release the ice, whereby the size of the ice maker can be reduced, the area occupied by the ice maker can be reduced, and a refrigerator having the ice maker can become slimmer. Also, because an installation height of the ice maker is lowered to shorten a cold air supply path and prevent a loss in the process of supplying cold air to the ice making chamber. Also, because a cutting operation is performed simultaneously when the ice is lifted, a fabrication cost can be reduced and a defective state due to malfunction can be prevented.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to an ice maker, a refrigerator having thesame, and a method for supplying ice of the refrigerator and, moreparticularly, to an ice maker having a small occupancy area and highspace utilization, a refrigerator having the same, and a method forsupplying ice of the refrigerator.

BACKGROUND ART

In general, a household refrigerator is a device having a certainaccommodation space to keep food items, or the like, at a lowtemperature, which is divided into a refrigerating chamber maintainedabove zero in a low temperature range and a freezing chamber maintainedbelow zero in the low temperature range. Recently, as demand for icerises, refrigerators having an automatic ice maker making ice areincreasing.

The automatic ice maker (referred to as an ice maker, hereinafter) maybe installed in the freezing chamber or in the refrigerating chamberaccording to the types of refrigerators. When the ice maker is installedin the refrigerating chamber, cold air in the freezing chamber is guided(or provided) to the ice maker to make ice.

Ice makers may be divided into a twist type icemaker, an ejector typeicemaker, and a rotation type ice maker depending on how ice made by theice maker is released. The twist type ice maker releases ice by twistingan ice making container. The ejector type ice maker draws up to releaseice from the ice container by an ejector installed at an upper side ofthe ice making container. The rotation type ice maker releases ice fromthe ice making container by rotating the ice making container.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION Technical Problem

However, the related ice makers have the following problems.

First, the related art ice maker makes ice with water put in a generallyhorizontal ice making container, the ice making container occupies alarge area and an ice releasing unit for releasing ice from the icemaking container is voluminous to reduce an available space of therefrigerator overall. In particular, the related art ice maker ishorizontally installed on a refrigerator door, further reducing theavailable space of the refrigerator. In this case, if the size of theice maker is reduced, the amount of ice to be made is reduced as much,failing to provide ice quickly when a large amount of ice is required inthe summer season.

Second, the ice making container of the related art ice maker isshallow, so when the refrigerator door is open or closed, water put inthe ice making container overflows toward an ice storage container,making ice cubes in the ice storage container become entangled.

Third, in the related art ice maker, generally, ice is dropped so as tobe stored or supplied, so in case of a refrigerator having a dispenser,the ice making chamber must be disposed to be higher than the dispenser.However, in a 3-door bottom freezer type refrigerator in which afreezing chamber is disposed at a lower side and a refrigerating chamberhaving an ice maker is disposed at an upper side, when the ice makingchamber is disposed to be high, the ice making chamber becomes distantfrom the freezing chamber, so generating a loss of cold air when coldair from the freezing chamber is delivered to the ice making chamber andreducing energy efficiency of the refrigerator.

Fourth, in the related art ice maker, an ice making unit and an icereleasing unit are operated by independent mechanisms, complicating theconfiguration and controlling and increasing the fabrication cost.

Solution to Problem

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an ice makeroccupying a small area to make a refrigerator thin, a refrigeratorhaving the same, and an ice providing method of the refrigerator.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an ice makercapable of preventing water from overflowing from an ice makingcontainer and thus prevent ice cubes in an ice storage container frombeing entangled when a refrigerator door is open and closed, arefrigerator having the same, and an ice providing method of therefrigerator.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an ice makerinstalled at a relatively lower side to reduce the distance between anice making chamber and a freezing chamber and prevent a loss of cold airwhen cold air is supplied from the freezing chamber to the ice makingchamber, a refrigerator having the same, and an ice providing method ofthe refrigerator.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an ice maker whichhas a simple configuration and is easily controlled in operation to thusreduce a fabrication cost and prevent malfunction, a refrigerator havingthe same, and an ice providing method of the refrigerator.

To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purposeof the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein,there is provided an ice maker including: an ice making container formaking ice; a lifting unit for lifting ice made in the ice makingcontainer; a cutting unit provided at an upper end of the ice makingcontainer and performing cutting to separate upper ice of ice lifted bythe lifting unit from lower ice kept in the ice making container; and anice storage container for storing ice cut by the cutting unit, whereinthe storage container is disposed such that its upper end is lower thana lower end of the ice making container.

To achieve the above objects, there is also provided a refrigeratorincluding: a refrigerator body having a receiving space; a refrigeratordoor coupled to the refrigerator door and opening and closing thereceiving space; a lifting unit for lifting ice made in the ice makingcontainer; a cutting unit provided at an upper end of the ice makingcontainer and performing cutting to separate upper ice of ice lifted bythe lifting unit from lower ice kept in the ice making container; and anice storage container for storing ice cut by the cutting unit, whereinthe storage container is disposed such that its upper end is lower thana lower end of the ice making container.

To achieve the above objects, there is also provided an ice supplyingmethod including: making ice in an ice making container; receiving anice dispense signal from a user; lifting ice of an ice making container;cutting the ice lifted from the ice making container; and dispensing thecut ice.

In the ice maker, the refrigerator having the same, and the method forsupplying ice of the refrigerator according to exemplary embodiments ofthe present invention, the vertically long ice making container isinstalled on the side wall of the refrigerator door, water is suppliedto the ice making container and frozen, and ice in the ice makingcontainer is pushed up by a screw so as to be released, whereby the sizeof the ice maker can be reduced, the area occupied by the ice maker canbe reduced, and refrigerator having the ice maker can become slimmer.

In addition, the ice maker is configured such that ice can be releasedfrom an upper side, so the installation height of the ice maker can belowered, and accordingly, a cold air supply path can be shortened toprevent a loss of cold air in the course of being supplied to the icemaking chamber.

Also, with the ice maker, since ice is cut shortly after it is releasedupon being pushed up by using a screw, the configuration and operationcontrolling of the ice maker can be simplified, and accordingly, afabrication cost can be reduced and malfunction can be prevented.

The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of thepresent invention will become more apparent from the following detaileddescription of the present invention when taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

Disclosed are an ice maker, a refrigerator having the ice maker, and amethod for supplying ice of the refrigerator. An ice making containerlong in a vertical direction is installed on a side wall surface of arefrigerator door, makes ice, and pushes up the ice by screws to releasethe ice, whereby the size of the ice maker can be reduced, the areaoccupied by the ice maker can be reduced, and a refrigerator having theice maker can become slimmer. Also, because an installation height ofthe ice maker is lowered to shorten a cold air supply path and prevent aloss in the process of supplying cold air to the ice making chamber.Also, because a cutting operation is performed simultaneously when theice is lifted, a fabrication cost can be reduced and a defective statedue to malfunction can be prevented.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention andtogether with the description serve to explain the principles of theinvention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a bottom freezer type refrigerator having an ice makeraccording to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a refrigerator door having the icemaker in FIG. 1 according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the ice maker in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line I-I in FIG. 3;

FIGS. 5 and 6 are plan views showing the operation of an example of acutter unit of the ice maker in FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram of a control unit in FIG. 4;

FIG. 8 is a vertical sectional view showing an ice making process of theice maker in FIG. 3;

FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating the ice making process performed bythe ice maker in FIG. 3; and

FIG. 10 is a schematic view showing another example of a cutter unit ofthe ice maker in FIG. 3.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

An ice maker, a refrigerator having the same, and a method for supplyingice of the refrigerator according to exemplary embodiments of thepresent invention will be described in detail with reference to theaccompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a bottom freezer type refrigerator having an ice makeraccording to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.2 is a perspective view showing a refrigerator door having the ice makerin FIG. 1 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a refrigerator according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention includes a freezing chamber 2 formedat a lower portion of a refrigerator body 1 and keeping food items instorage in a frozen state and a refrigerating chamber 3 formed at anupper portion of the refrigerator body 1 and keeping food items instorage in a refrigerated state. A freezing chamber door 4 and isinstalled at the freezing chamber 2 to open and close the freezingchamber 2 in a drawer manner, and a plurality of refrigerating chamberdoors 5 are installed at both sides of the refrigerating chamber 3 inorder to open and close the refrigerating chamber 3 at both sides in ahinged manner. A mechanic chamber is formed at a lower end of a rearside of the refrigerator body 1, in which a compressor and a condenserare installed.

An evaporator (not shown) connected with the condenser and thecompressor to supply cold air to the freezing chamber 2 or to therefrigerating chamber 3 may be installed on the rear surface of therefrigerator body 1, namely, on the rear wall surface of the freezingchamber 2 between an outer case and an inner case. Also, the evaporatormay be insertedly installed at an inner side of a side wall surface oran upper wall surface of the freezing chamber 2 or may be insertedlypositioned at an inner side of a barrier demarcating the freezingchamber 2 and the refrigerating chamber 3. A single evaporator may beinstalled in the freezing chamber 2 to distributedly supply cold air tothe freezing chamber 2 and the refrigerating chamber 3, or a freezingchamber evaporator and a refrigerating chamber evaporator may beinstalled, respectively, to independently supply cold air to thefreezing chamber 2 and the refrigerating chamber 3.

An ice making chamber 51 is formed on an inner wall surface of an upperportion of the refrigerating chamber door 5 in order to make and keepice, and an ice maker 100 for making ice is installed in the interior ofthe ice maker 51. A dispenser 52 is installed to be exposed from therefrigerator to allow ice made in the ice maker 100 to be drawn out ofthe refrigerator.

In the refrigerator according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention as described above, when a load in the freezing chamber 2 orthe refrigerating chamber 3 is detected, the compressor operates togenerate cold air from the evaporator, and a portion of the cold air issupplied to the freezing chamber 2 and the refrigerating chamber 3, andanother portion of the cold air generated from the evaporator issupplied to the ice making chamber 51. The cold air supplied to the icemaking chamber 51 is exchanged to allow the ice maker 100 mounted in theice making chamber 51 to make ice and then retrieved to the freezingchamber 2 or supplied to the refrigerating chamber 3. The ice made inthe ice maker 100 is taken out according to a request from the dispenser52. This sequential process is repeatedly performed.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the ice maker in FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is asectional view taken along line I-I in FIG. 3, FIGS. 5 and 6 are planviews showing the operation of an example of a cutter unit of the icemaker in FIG. 2, and FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram of a controlunit in FIG. 4.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the ice maker 100 includes a water supplyunit 110 connected to a water source and supplying water, an ice makingcontainer 120 for receiving water supplied from the water source 110 andmaking ice, a lifting unit 130 for lifting ice made in the ice makingcontainer 120 to release it, and a cutting unit 140 installed at anopening end of the ice making container 120, cutting ice (I) releasedfrom the ice making container 120 to allow the ice can be moved to adispenser.

The water supply unit 110 includes a water supply pipe 111 connectingthe water source and the ice making container 120, a water supply valve112 installed in the middle of the water supply pipe 111 to regulate theamount of water supplied (or a water supply amount), and a water supplypump installed at an upper flow side or a lower flow side of the watersupply valve 112 to pump water. Here, the water supply pump 113 isrequired to supply uniform water pressure, but not requisite. When thewater supply pump 113 is excluded, water may be supplied by using aheight difference between the water source and the ice making container120.

The water supply pipe 111 may be directly connected to the water sourceto supply water, or the water supply pipe 111 may be connected to awater tank (not shown) provided in the refrigerating chamber 3 andstoring a certain amount of water therein. In this case, the water tankis a water source. Here, in order to supply an appropriate amount ofwater to the ice making container 120, a water level sensor may beinstalled in the ice making container 120 or a flow sensor for detectingthe amount of water flow may be installed in the water supply pipe or awater level sensor may be installed in the water tank.

The water supply valve 112 and the water supply pump 113 may beelectrically connected to transmit and receive a signal to a controlunit. The control unit 150 may regulate the water supply amount based ona value detected in real time by the water level sensor or the flowsensor, or an operation time of the water supply valve 112 and the watersupply pump 113 may be made into data so as to periodically turn on oroff the water supply valve 112 and the water supply pump 113.

As shown in FIG. 2, the ice making container 120 includes an ice makingspace 121 therein. Preferably, the ice making container 120 is installedat one wall surface, namely, a left wall surface or a right wall surface(the right side when inwardly projected in FIG. 2), of the refrigeratingchamber door 3 in order to reduce the area occupied by the ice maker100.

A driving unit 131 (to be described) is coupled and sealed to a lowerend of the ice making container 120 to hermetically seal the ice makingcontainer 120, and an ice discharge hole 122 is formed at an upper endof the ice making container 120 to allow released ice cubes to bedischarged to the ice storage container 53. The ice discharge hole 122is formed at a front side of the ice making container 120 so that icecan be discharged in a horizontal direction of the refrigerating chamberdoor 3 and guided to the ice storage container 53 installed at a centralportion of the front side. Here, the ice storage container 53 isdisposed such that its upper end is higher than a lower end of the icemaking container 120. Preferably, the ice storage container 53 ispositioned to be as high as the ice discharge hole 122.

The ice making container may be made of a heat conductive material suchas aluminum and may have a shape of a rectangular section having acertain thickness. Of course, the ice making container 120 may havevarious shapes as necessary. In this case, since ice needs to be incontact with one or two screws (which are installed at left and rightsides of the ice making container) (to be described), the ice makingcontainer 120 may be formed to have a horizontally long rectangularshape to make ice of rectangular parallelepiped.

The ice making container 120 may include ribs 124 formed on an innercircumferential surface. Namely, ice made in the ice making container120 is a sort of a lump of bulky ice, so it is not easy to cut the lumpof ice with a cutter or cut ice cubes may not be uniform. Thus, the ribs124 may be formed to be long in a vertical direction on an innercircumferential surface of the ice making container 120 in order todemarcate ice lifted by the lifting unit 130 at certain intervals in ahorizontal direction as possible. The shape of the pieces of ice may bedetermined according to the shape of the ribs 124.

The ice making container 120 may be formed to have the same sectionalarea and shape in a lengthwise direction, or may be formed to have adifferent sectional area and shape along the lengthwise direction asnecessary. When the ice making container 120 has a different sectionalarea and shape in the lengthwise direction, the ice making container 120may be formed to widen toward an opening end, i.e., an ice releasingend, to allow ice made in the ice making container to be smoothlyreleased along the lengthwise direction.

A screw bracket 125 is formed at an upper end of the ice discharge hole122 in order to rotatably support a screw 135 of the lifting unit 130(to be described), and a plurality of support holes 125 a are formed onleft and right portions of the screw bracket 125 to allow the screw 135to be rotatably coupled therein.

A single ice making container 120 may be provided or a plurality of icemaking containers 120 may be provided according to the capacity or icemaking capacity of a refrigerator or according to circumstances. When aplurality of ice making containers 120 are provided, they may bearranged in a row or may be arranged in double rows in consideration ofthe relationships with ambient components. When the ice makingcontainers are arranged in double rows, since the ice discharge hole isformed at a front side of the ice making containers, the ice makingcontainer in a rear row may be formed to be higher than the ice makingcontainer in a front row in order to allow ice discharged from the icemaking container in the rear row to smoothly pass over the ice makingcontainer in the front row so as to be guided to the ice storagecontainer. Besides, the arrangement of the ice making containers 120 maybe appropriately adjusted.

The lifting unit 130 includes a driving motor 131 coupled to a lower endof the ice making container 120 and generating a driving force (orpower) to release ice, a plurality of screws 132 coupled to the drivingmotor 131 and pushing up ice while being rotated, and a heater 133provided at an outer surface of the ice making container 120 to melt theinterface between the ice and the ice making container to release ice.

The driving motor 131 is configured as a uni-directional rotary motor,and a decelerator 135 may be coupled to a rotational shaft of thedriving motor 131 in order to appropriately decelerate a turning forceof the driving motor 131 and deliver the decelerated force to the screw131.

The screws 131 are formed to be long in a vertical direction. An upperend of each of the screws 132 is rotatably coupled to the screw bracket125 of the ice making container 120, and a lower end thereof is coupledto a rotational shaft (not shown) of the driving motor 131 with thedecelerator 135 interposed therebetween.

The screws 132 have thread portion 132 a which are in contact with theice (I) up to a certain height of the ice making container 120 to pushup the ice (I). The thread portion 132 a may have a shape of atriangular section or other shapes such as a shape of a square section.

The screws 132 may be installed at left and right sides of the icemaking container 120, or a single screw 132 may be installed at thecenter of the ice making container 120 according to circumstances.

As shown in FIG. 3, the heater 133 may be configured as a line heater(or a thermal line) wound to be brought into contact with a frontsurface of the ice making container 120. In this case, the heater 133may be configured as a single circuit according to the configuration ofthe ice making container 120, or may include a plurality of circuitsaccording to circumstances.

The heater 133 may be controlled to interwork with the water supply unit110. For example, it is determined whether water is being currentlysupplied to the ice making container 120 to make ice, whether ice makingis being performed, or whether ice, after being made, is being releasedaccording to the change in the values detected by the water level sensoror the flow sensor, and when it is determined that water is beingsupplied to make ice or when it is determined that water has beencompletely supplied and ice is being currently made, the operation ofthe heater is stopped, and when ice releasing is currently performedafter ice making is completed, the operation of the heater 133 may becontrolled to start.

Here, a point in time at which the heater 133 is operated may bedetermined by detecting the temperature of the ice making container 120in real time or periodically, or a time which has lapsed after the valueof the water level sensor or the flow sensor of the water supply unit110 was changed may be made into data and the heater may be forciblyoperated according to the data value. Namely, whether or not the icemaking operation has been completed can be checked by detecting thetemperature of the ice making container 120 or through an ice makingtime. For example, when the temperature measured by a temperature sensor(not shown) mounted in the ice making container 120 is lower than acertain temperature, e.g., −9 C, it may be determined that ice makinghas been completed, or when a certain time has lapsed after water wassupplied, it may be determined that ice making has been completed.

Although not shown, the heater 133 may be formed of a conductivepolymer, a plate heater with positive thermal coefficient, an aluminumthin film, and other materials such as a heat transfer availablematerial, or the like.

Except for that the heater is attached to the front side of the icemaking container 120, although not shown, it may be buried in theinterior of the ice making container 120 or provided on an innercircumferential surface of the ice making container 120. Also, withoutusing the heater 133, the ice making container may be configured as aresistor which can generate heat such that at least a portion of the icemaking container 120 may serve as a heater to generate heat whenelectricity is applied thereto.

The heater 133 may be installed to be spaced apart from the ice makingcontainer 120, rather than being in contact with the ice makingcontainer 120, so as to be configured as a heat source. For example, theheat source includes a light source irradiating light to at least one ofice and the ice making container 120, a magnetron irradiating microwavesto at least one of ice and the ice making container 120. The heatsources such as the heater, the light source, or the magnetron directlyapplies thermal energy to at least one of ice and the ice makingcontainer 120 or to the interface therebetween to melt a portion of theinterface between ice and the ice making container 120. Accordingly,when the screw 132 operate, although the interface between the ice andthe ice making container 120 is not entirely thawed, the ice can beseparated from the ice making container by the screws 132.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the cutting unit 140 includes a driving gear141 coupled to the screws 132, an intermediate gear 142 whose rotatingspeed is adjusted by being rotated in mesh with the driving gear 141,and a following gear 143 rotated in mesh with the intermediate gear 142and having a cutter blade 145 to cut ice.

The intermediate gear 142 may include a first gear portion 142 a in meshwith the driving gear 141 and a second gear portion 142 b in mesh withthe following gear 142. The second gear portion 142 b of theintermediate gear 142 is formed only at a portion of the intermediategear 142 along a circumferential direction in order to curb thefollowing gear 143 only at the portion, and other portions of theintermediate gear 142 which are not in mesh with the following gear 143may be elastically supported by an elastic member 144 to allow thefollowing gear 143 to return to a cutting preparation position.

Meanwhile, the driving motor 131 and the heater 133 may be controlledtogether by a control unit 150, namely, a microcomputer, electricallyconnected to the driving motor 131 and the heater 133. For example, asshown in FIG. 7, the control unit 150 includes a detection unit 151connected to a temperature sensor (not shown) to detect the temperatureof the ice making container 120 or a timer (not shown) to detect a timewhich has lapsed since water was supplied, a determining unit 152 fordetermining whether or not ice making has been completed by comparingthe temperature or time detected by the detection unit 151 with areference value, and a command unit 153 for controlling an ON/OFFoperation of the heater 133 and the operation of the driving motor 131according to the determination of the determining unit 152.

An ice supply method in a refrigerator according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 8 and 9.

As illustrated, when ice making is required, the ice maker 100 is turnedon to start ice making operation (S1). Then, the water supply unit 110supplies water to the ice making container 120 (S2). In this case, thewater supply amount is detected by using the water level sensorinstalled at the ice making container 120, the flow sensor installed atthe water supply pipe, the water level sensor installed at the watertank, and the like, in real time, and the detected water supply amountis delivered to the microcomputer. Then, the microcomputer compares thereceived water supply amount with a pre-set water supply amount (S3).The microcomputer determines whether or not an appropriate amount ofwater has been supplied to the ice making container 120 according to thecomparison, and when the microcomputer determines that an appropriateamount of water has been supplied to the ice making container 120, themicrocomputer shuts off the water supply valve of the water supply unit110 to prevent water from being supplied to the ice making container anymore (S4).

When the water supply to the ice making container 120 is completed, thewater in the ice making container 120 is exposed to cold air supplied tothe ice making chamber 51 for more than a certain period of time andfrozen (S5). While the water in the ice making container 120 is beingfrozen, the temperature sensor (not shown) detects the temperature ofthe ice making container periodically or in real time and delivers thedetected temperature to the microcomputer. The microcomputer comparesthe received measured temperature with a pre-set temperature (S6). Themicrocomputer determines whether the surface of the water put in the icemaking container 110 has been frozen, and when the microcomputerdetermines that the surface of the water in the ice making container 110has been frozen, it stops the sequential operations and enters a waterreleasing step (S7).

When ice dispensing is requested by the user, the heater 133 is operatedby the control unit 150, and when the heater 133 is operated, heat isapplied to the ice making container 120, melting an outer surface of theice in contact with the inner circumferential surface of the ice makingcontainer 120.

Thereafter, when the driving motor 131 is operated by the control unit150, the both screws 132 are rotated, and the thread portion 132 a ofthe screws 132 pushes up ice to perform ice releasing (S9 to S11).

Next, when the screws 132 are rotated, the cutting unit 140 coupled tothe upper end of the screws 132 are operated. Namely, the driving gear141 and the intermediate gear 142 coupled to the upper end of the screw132 rotate and the following gear 143 in mesh with a portion of theintermediate gear 142 to rotate. Then, the cutter blade 145 of thefollowing gear 143 cuts lifted ice (S12). When the intermediate gear 142further rotates so the following gear 143 escapes the second gearportion 142 b of the intermediate gear 142, the following gear 143returns to its original position by the elastic member 144. An Ice cubeIC cut by the cutting unit 140 freefalls through the ice discharge hole122 and is directly discharged to the dispenser 52 or discharged to theice storage container 53 disposed at the front side of the ice makingcontainer (S13).

Here, in the process of releasing ice from the ice making container 120or in the process of preparing ice releasing, supply of cold air to theice making chamber 51 may be stopped to facilitate the ice releasingoperation and reduce power applied to the heater 133.

When dispensing is completed, the operations of the heater 133 and thecutting unit 140 are stopped, the water supply valve 112 is open tosupply an appropriate amount of water to the ice making container 120 bythe water level sensor, the flow sensor, or the like. This sequentialprocess is repeatedly performed.

In this manner, because the size of the ice maker is reduced to be assmall as to be installed on the side wall surface of the refrigeratordoor, the area to be occupied by the ice maker can be reduced, andaccordingly, the refrigerator including the ice maker can becomeslimmer. Namely, in the related art, the width of ice making containeris large, and the width of the ice releasing unit for releasing ice fromthe ice making container is large, increasing the width of the ice makeroverall to have a limitation of making the refrigerator including thesame slimmer, but in the present invention, because the ice makerincludes an ice making container having a small diameter and isinstalled to be long in the vertical direction on one wall surface ofthe refrigerator door, the area occupied by the ice maker overall can besignificantly reduced.

Also, since the installation height of the ice maker is lowered, a coldair supply path can be shortened, and accordingly, the loss of cold airwhen it is supplied to the ice making chamber through the supply pathcan be prevented. Namely, in the related art, the ice storage containerfor keeping ice made in the ice making container in storage is installedat a lower side of the ice making container, but in the presentinvention, the vertically long ice making container is applied and keepsa certain amount of ice, so any additional ice storage container can beomitted. Even when an ice storage container is provided, it can beprovided at the front side of the ice maker, the height of the ice makercan be lowered overall, and accordingly, the distance between thefreezing chamber and the ice making chamber can be reduced, shorteningthe cold air supply path to reduce the loss of cold air and an inputloss for driving the ice maker.

In addition, the configuration and operation controlling of the icemaker can be simplified to reduce a fabrication cost and preventmalfunction of the ice maker. Namely, in the related art, the twistingmethod, the heating method, the rotating method are applied to releaseice, but in the present invention, since ice can be mechanically pushedup by using the rotational force of the driving motor and released, theconfiguration and operation controlling of the ice maker can besimplified and performed accurately, the fabrication cost of the icemaker can be reduced and defective ice making due to malfunction of theice maker can be prevented, thus enhancing reliability of the ice maker.

A method for cutting ice in the ice maker of the refrigerator accordingto a different exemplary embodiment of the present invention will now bedescribed.

In the former exemplary embodiment, the gear-type cutting blade isprovided to the upper end of the ice making container, but in thepresent exemplary embodiment, a structure is installed in a proceedingdirection of ice lifted in the ice making container to press and splitice, without providing the cutting blade.

For example, as shown in FIG. 10, a cutting face 126 is formed to besloped on the bottom of a screw bracket 125 provided at an upper end ofthe ice making container 120, such that it goes crisscross to the icelifting direction. When the ice is lifted by the screw 132, the upperend of the ice is blocked to be split by the cutting face 126, and theice is guided to the dispenser 52 or to the ice storage container 53through the ice discharge hole 122. In this case, the basic constitutionand effects are the same as or similar to those of the foregoingexemplary embodiment, so a detailed description thereof will be omitted.In this case, however, when a cutting blade is not provided, the numberof components is reduced, so the fabrication cost is reduced and theinput of the driving motor is also reduced, enhancing the efficiency ofthe refrigerator.

The ice maker, the refrigerator having the ice maker, and the method forsupplying ice of the refrigerator can be applicable to any freezingdevices having an ice maker of a refrigerator having two clamshelldoors.

As the present invention may be embodied in several forms withoutdeparting from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof, itshould also be understood that the above-described embodiments are notlimited by any of the details of the foregoing description, unlessotherwise specified, but rather should be construed broadly within itsspirit and scope as defined in the appended claims, and therefore allchanges and modifications that fall within the metes and bounds of theclaims, or equivalence of such metes and bounds are therefore intendedto be embraced by the appended claims.

1. An ice maker comprising: an ice making container for making ice; alifting unit for lifting ice made in the ice making container; a cuttingunit provided at an upper end of the ice making container and performingcutting to separate upper ice of ice lifted by the lifting unit fromlower ice kept in the ice making container; and an ice storage containerfor storing ice cut by the cutting unit, wherein the storage containeris disposed such that its upper end is lower than a lower end of the icemaking container.
 2. The ice maker of claim 1, wherein the ice makingcontainer comprises at least one rib formed in a vertical direction onan inner circumferential surface of the longer axis direction.
 3. Theice maker of claim 1, wherein the lifting unit comprises: screwsprovided to be in contact with ice at both sides of the ice makingcontainer and lifting ice in an ice making space while being rotated;and a driving motor coupled to a lower end of the ice making containerto rotate the screw.
 4. The ice maker of claim 1, wherein the cuttingunit is coupled to the screws and cuts ice lifted in the ice makingspace, while being rotated along with the screws.
 5. The ice maker ofclaim 4, wherein the cutting unit comprise a driving gear coupled to thescrews, an intermediate gear regulating a rotation speed while beingrotated in mesh with the driving gear, and a following gear rotated inmesh with the intermediate gear and having a cutting blade for cuttingthe ice.
 6. The ice maker of claim 5, wherein the intermediate gearcomprises a first gear portion in mesh with the driving gear and asecond gear portion in mesh with the following gear, the second gearportion of the intermediate gear is formed only at a portion of theintermediate gear along a circumferential direction in order to curb thefollowing gear only at the portion, and other portions of theintermediate gear which are not in mesh with the following gear areelastically supported by an elastic member to allow the following gearto return to a cutting preparation position.
 7. The ice maker of claim1, wherein a cutting face is formed to be sloped toward the ice storagecontainer to allow ice lifted by the screws to be cut.
 8. The ice makerof claim 1, wherein the ice making container is made of a heatconductive material, and one or more heaters are provided to apply heatto the ice making container.
 9. The ice maker of claim 8, wherein theheater is electrically connected to a control unit that controls anON/OFF operation of the heater, and the control unit comprises adetection unit for detecting the temperature of the ice making containeror detecting a time which has lapsed since water was supplied, adetermining unit for determining whether or not ice making has beencompleted by comparing the temperature or time detected by the detectionunit with a reference value, and a command unit for controlling anON/OFF operation of the heater according to the determination of thedetermining unit.
 10. The ice maker of claim 1, wherein the ice makingcontainer comprises a plurality of ice making containers, wherein theplurality of ice making containers are arranged in double rows.
 11. Arefrigerator comprising: a refrigerator body having a receiving space; arefrigerator door coupled to the refrigerator door and opening andclosing the receiving space; an ice maker provided to the refrigeratordoor and making ice, wherein the ice maker is made of any one of claim 1to claim
 10. 12. The refrigerator of claim 11, wherein the ice makingcontainer is installed on a side wall surface of the refrigerator door,and the ice storage container is installed at one side of the ice makingcontainer in a lateral direction of the refrigerator door.
 13. A methodfor supplying ice comprising: making ice in an ice making container;receiving an ice dispense signal from a user; lifting ice of an icemaking container; cutting the ice lifted from the ice making container;and dispensing the cut ice.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein themaking of ice comprises: supplying water to the ice making container;detecting the temperature or amount of water supplied to the ice makingcontainer; and determining whether or not the detected water temperatureand water amount has reached a pre-set water temperature or wateramount.
 15. The method of claim 13, further comprising: separating acontact surface between the ice making container and ice, before liftingthe ice in the ice making container.
 16. The method of claim 13,wherein, in lifting the ice, a mechanical force is applied to the ice.17. The method of claim 13, wherein, in cutting the ice in the icemaking container, a mechanical cutting force interworking by amechanical force for lifting the ice in the ice making container isused.
 18. The method of claim 13, wherein, in cutting the ice in the icemaking container, a cutting face is formed to go crisscross to thedirection in which the ice is lifted from the ice making container touse a mechanical force for lifting the ice.
 19. The method of claim 13,further comprising: stopping supplying of cold air to the ice makingcontainer before the ice making container is rotated.